Chinese businessman spends $1million on mother’s funeral [AsiaOne]

An insight into China’s domestic growth and the Chinese mind for filial piety. 600 musicians with 600 monks on top of 16 gold-plated cannons; juxtaposed with this statement –

The dramatic transformation in recent decades has created dozens of dollar billionaires in China, but also left millions more languishing at the bottom of the pile in a country still marked by grinding poverty among the rural masses.

CHINA – A Chinese businessman threw a lavish funeral for his mother that cost close to S$1 million.

The funeral procession included a fleet of eight stretched Lincoln limousines and other luxury cars for transporting family members.

There was also a large marching band of more than 600 musicians, and a row of 16 gold-painted cannons which fired a salute as the coffin passed.

Reports said that 600 monks carried out the funeral rites, and monks had to be recruited from neighbouring provinces because there were not enough monks in the province where the funeral was held.

About 1,000 mourners turned up for the over five-million yuan (S$976,283) event, in Wenling, east China’s Zhejiang province on March 4, 2011.

It is reported that the wealthy businessman and his five siblings wanted to give their late mother a lavish tribute for singlehandedly raising them. Photo – AsiaOne

Mourners and other onlookers who were not able to get close to the funeral procession were able to watch the event unfold live on screens on either side of a stage.

It is reported that 10,000 onlookers crowded around the area, causing a huge traffic jam.

The dramatic transformation in recent decades has created dozens of dollar billionaires in China, but also left millions more languishing at the bottom of the pile in a country still marked by grinding poverty among the rural masses.

China’s yawning wealth gap – an unfortunate by-product of the country’s stunning economic transformation and a problem that the ruling Communist Party aims to address in a new plan to revamp the economy.